Ricardito is the cult Uruguayan confection — a cookie base topped with a tower of Italian meringue, the whole thing enrobed in dark chocolate. Created in the 1960s by the Ricard company, discontinued in 2023, then famously rescued and relaunched by Uruguayan chocolatier Yasta — its return was national news. It has no Argentine counterpart; it is purely Uruguayan.
Ricardito was launched in the 1960s by the Uruguayan chocolatier Ricard — a small chocolate bar of a cookie base, Italian meringue, and chocolate coating; the name was a diminutive of the company's own name, like a little son. It became a generational icon: Uruguayan children of the 1970s-2000s grew up on Ricarditos. In 2023 its owner (by then part of Grupo Bimbo) discontinued it, provoking national mourning driven by nostalgic social-media campaigns. Later that year the Uruguayan chocolate company Haas acquired the brand and relaunched it, reformulating the base to be gluten-free. The Ricardito is a defining candy of Uruguayan childhood, and its rescue was a national event.
Bite through the snap of dark chocolate into a soft, sweet cloud of meringue, then a crunch of cookie. The textures stack: crisp chocolate shell, yielding meringue, crisp base. The taste is sweet, chocolatey, nostalgic. Eat one and you are seven years old again, in a Montevideo schoolyard.
Three components, each technically demanding. The cookie base is a shortbread, baked until just set. The meringue is Italian (hot sugar syrup whipped into egg whites), giving a stable, fluffy topping that holds its shape. The chocolate coating must be tempered (heated and cooled to specific temperatures) so it sets with a snap and a gloss; the coated bars must be chilled quickly so the meringue doesn't weep. The assembly is layered: cookie, meringue mound, full chocolate enrobing.
Variations
Some versions use milk chocolate; some add a layer of dulce de leche; the modern Yasta version is close to the original 1960s recipe.
On the Palate
Where Ricardito sits in the Uruguayan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 20How it's made
8 steps · 1 hour 10 min active + 50 min waiting
- 115 min
Make cookie base: 200 g flour, 100 g butter, 80 g sugar, 1 egg; roll to 5 mm; cut into small rectangles; bake at 180°C for 12 minutes.
- 215 min
Make Italian meringue: cook 200 g sugar with 80 ml water to 118°C; stream into 3 beaten egg whites; whip to stiff peaks.
Watch outBring the syrup to exactly the soft-ball stage, then stream it in slowly — too hot scrambles the whites, too cool and the meringue won't hold.
- 310 min
Pipe meringue onto each cookie base in a tall mound.
- 430 min
Chill the assembled mounds 30 minutes.
- 515 min
Temper 400 g dark chocolate (melt to 50°C, cool to 28°C, rewarm to 31°C).
Watch outTemper the chocolate to the right window so it sets with a snap and shine — untempered, it dulls and streaks and won't crisp.
- 620 min
Enrobe each mound completely in chocolate, working fast.
Watch outEnrobe fast while the chocolate flows — once it starts thickening the coat goes streaky and uneven.
- 715 min
Place on parchment; chill 15 minutes to set.
- 81 min
Store in a cool place; serve at room temperature.
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